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As they entered the courtroom bustling with journalists, the elder Ahmad was seen wearing a light brown hijab, while the younger woman opted for a pink and white headscarf.
Seated in the dock beside custody officers, they exchanged smiles and glanced at the audience, which included their supporters, throughout the proceedings.
Although their attempt to secure conditional release faced delays today, Zeinab’s legal team has announced plans for a renewed bail application on June 4 and 5.
Kawsar’s bail hearing is scheduled to take place two weeks later, on June 16 and 17.
Investigators claim that in 2014, Kawsar Ahmad, also known as Abbas, traveled to the area with her spouse and children.
They allege she was complicit in buying a female slave for $US10,000, and knowingly kept the woman in her home.
She has been charged with enslavement, possessing a slave, using a slave and slave trading.
Charge sheets released by the court allege the 53-year-old enslaved, possessed and used the slave in Mayadin, Hajin, Gharanji, Bahra, Abu Hamam, Walaa and other places in the Deir ez-Zu province of Syria between June 2017 and November 2018.
It is alleged the younger Ahmad had also knowingly kept a female slave in her Syrian home, with police charging her with enslavement and using a slave offences over the same period.
The document stated the pair’s conduct was “committed intentionally or knowingly as part of a widespread or systemic attack directed against a civil population”.
Police said the pair were detained by Kurdish forces in 2019 and held with other family members in Al Roj Internally Displaced Persons camp.
They are among three returnees charged following an almost decade-long investigation, which began after the women travelled to the Middle East with their partners, who allegedly intended to fight for Islamic State.
A third woman, 32-year-old Janai Safar, who flew into Sydney, was arrested and charged with entering a prohibited area and being a member of a terrorist organisation.
She was denied bail due to the seriousness of the charges and will return before the court in July.
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